Thanks to affordable starter kits and more resources around the sport, drone racing is now more popular than ever. People love it for different reasons, but most fall in love with the fast-paced action that drone racing offers. It is also a sport that gets easier to get into, even when you are on a tight budget.

With a budget of under $100, you can pick up a set of drone parts for constructing your first racing drone. Practicing with a brand-new kit, however, may not be something you want to do. Instead of risking breaking your first racing drone, use these top drone simulators instead.

Drone Racing Simulator by DRL

The Drone Racing Simulator from Drone Racing League or DRL is one of the best simulators you can try today. The simulator is available from Steam for a reasonable price, plus it is compatible with both Windows and macOS. What’s interesting about this drone simulator is the stunning graphics you get with the game, as well as an accurate simulator through and through.

Using the Drone Racing Simulator, you can practice racing a done through the best tracks from the DRL. Even better, you can compete with real DRL pilots and see if you have what it takes to be the next start of the Drone Racing League.

You don’t even have to start racing right away. Drone Racing Simulator has a built-in practice and freestyle modes that allow you to get used to the controls of a racing drone. Everything is designed to be as lifelike as possible; once you are good enough with the simulator, you can switch to your real drone with confidence.

Hotprops

Hotprops is still in its beta stage, but you can play the simulator and experience what it is like to fly an FPV drone. Hotprops put more emphasis on making the whole flying experience as accurate as possible, including the controls and the way drones behave in different environments.

Interestingly, you can customize the settings of your Hotprops drone. Through some tweaking and fine-tuning, you can actually fly a drone that feels and performs the way your real drone does in real life. This makes the whole process of training using a simulator more effective.

Heli-X Flight Simulator

The last simulator is geared towards videographers and photographers who use a drone in their work, but it still offers plenty of opportunities to train with different drones. I’m talking about Heli-X Flight Simulator, a sim designed to help you navigate the tough flying environment and avoid obstacles while capturing the best images possible.

Heli-X is a great simulator for training your reflexes and for getting used to the controls of a drone. You can crank the difficulty level of 11 if you want the simulator to be as real as possible. The default settings are actually modeled after DJI Phantom, so some tweaking is needed before you can practice some racing.

Any of these simulators can help you practice drone racing without ever crashing your first drone. Once you are familiar with the controls and feel more prepared for the challenges of racing a drone, you can take your real drone out for some test runs.